End of module self evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL401 Context of Practice	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	Adele Pierce

1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
The ability to make imagery born from an essay based on my interests in society and culture. I was able to be selective with main points raised within the essay to expand into further research. I think my research skills have been very strong for this brief and this allowed me to come up with a wide range of ideas that I could explore. I have spent a lot of time drawing and re-drawing within the sketchbook and outside of it to experiment with my drawing technique.  I have also spent more time colouring my final outcomes on this brief which meant my digital skills have improved. My research was the main thing that allowed my work to explode and I spent a lot of time looking into powerful women, statistics, books on fairytales, politically correct fairytales, feminism and combined all of this into one final idea which is definitely a developed skill.
2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?
I created a spider diagrams of all of my ideas including in this any imagery and sketches of people associated. From this I began drawing suffragette strikers as this was my initial main interest. I then began to look at how I could apply this to Disney Princesses and began to combine the two. The suffragette sketches gave me a create insight into powerful women fighting for their rights. I looked at their facial expressions a lot and how I could apply this to the Princesses once again. I also looked at strikers in general. I then looked at a realistic drawing approach to the Princesses rather than the cartoony Disney sketches as this would be easier to translate into strikers and make them appear real women (the argument of my essay). Outside of my sketchbook from this I began to develop my characters by exploring at how I could perceive Disney Princesses in a different light; a more real down to earth approach. I began add a little bit of humour by showing them drunk, smoking, on the toilet. I wanted to show a sense of rebellion against the structure. I also drew out overweight people eating and transformed those into female Disney characters such as Ursula eating a KFC, Cinderella and Snow White eating a Macdonalds. I re-drew all of my characters many times in order to get it right which I feel really improved my drawing style.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I think my work still reflects the main arguments of my essay which is the most successful thing. I wanted to make a point of how Disney Princesses are role models to children. My argument was how they rely on males too much within the fairytales and that they should have their own sense of independence. I feel my work best represents this; a sense of strong women gaining independence. I wanted to show how life would be like after the ‘happily ever after’ and I feel I have done this with a humorous approach. I think from drawing so much this has really informed my practise and I began to notice different ways I could approach my final outcomes. I have 6 outcomes altogether but they are split into two sections due to different drawing styles in each. One was a more Disney cartoon approach and one was based on real women transforming those into Princesses so they look a little bit more realistic. I think a strength is coming up with 6 outcomes and spending a lot of time on each to colour them. I often stayed behind really late in order to work on these and I think it can be shown compared to other briefs in the past. I also think a strength was my essay; and the arguments raised within this in order to highlight issues that I feel are original and may usually go unnoticed. I think the work best reflects what I am about through humour and I have created work that even outside of University people have seen and admire and want copies of because they find it so funny. This is a really positive thing and shows that the work is relatable and recognisable. I think my research is a real strength within this brief it really gave me an understanding of my work and made me passionate about it. I think my development of character is also quite strong and is a credit that people find the Princesses recognisable as this was something I was worried wouldn’t come across so well.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
A weakness I feel would definitely be the format of my work, and the composition of my outcomes. I spent too much time developing my drawings and colouring them rather than initial thumbnails and planning of different ways in which I could display the image on a page. I feel I could have come up with a more exciting outcome – perhaps a book or zine. I would have liked to have experimented with the scale too; to see how they would look at A2. I spent too much time over my drawings within my sketchbook and not enough time just rough sketching. In the future I would consider my compositions more and also my colour palettes to reflect Disney. I think I could still pay more attention to the way in which I colour my work, as well as the line work. I need to rely less on line work for the outlines and more on shape and colour letting that speak for itself. Also I feel I could have developed my characters further, making all of the work stand together as one series rather than two separate ones. I think particularly looking at other people’s outcomes in the crit I should have been more ambitious with my format.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
Next time I will be more selective with my research and run with an idea rather than changing my mind like I changed it from the strikers idea to being more humorous. I think this will give me more time to plan my final outcomes as to how I would like them to be displayed; considering composition, scale, frame and format. I would like to spend more time experimenting with materials. Within my sketchbook I was not so experimental I was still using fine liners despite adding bits of colour with pencils. I would like to push myself within the next brief to start using paints and inks and try to rely less on line work. I think I have best explored my drawing techniques within this brief but this could be pushed further. I will also push myself to be more ambitious. The time I challenged myself most was when I made a book so maybe I will do this again. I think I should have been selective with my final outcomes rather than six – perhaps having four and spending more time polishing up on those as there’s still a few gaps of colour.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality					x
Motivation					x
Commitment					x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group					x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

A copy of your end of module self evaluation should be posted to your studio practice blog. This should be the last post before the submission of work and will provide the starting point for the assessment process. Post a copy of your evaluation to your PPP blog as evidence of your own on going evaluation.

Notes